“Kathryn told you everything else about me.” I focused and a smoky blue blade of pure psychic energy exploded from the end of my Amplifier. “Didn’t she mention my favorite weapon?”
“Cool!” Bobby reached out toward the Thought Saber.
“Don’t.” I put my hand out to stop him.
“Doesn’t look like it’ll cut me.”
“It won’t. It’ll short-circuit your brain.” I spun the Saber in a short arc and slashed between the cabinet doors. They swung open with a click, and I extinguished the Saber. “But it’ll cut steel. We’re in.”
Bobby examined the lock. “Wow. Looks like it was cut by a laser.”
“Gotta have a sharp mind in this business.” I giggled. I always wanted to use that line. Andy would have been so proud.
“Ha ha.” Bobby pulled out the bottle of DMSO and handed it to me.
I uncorked it and poured a drop into the first bottle on the shelf labeled PASS. A stench like an open sewer filled the air. Memories of Kathryn flashed through my mind, and I burst out laughing. “Excuse me, I fluffed.”
“Right in Angel’s face,” Bobby said.
We worked swiftly, contaminating the entire pass rack before moving on to the rework rack. Finally, we contaminated all the remaining flasks of ergot.
“This place smells like the boy’s bathroom after Rubric leaves,” Bobby said.
“The Knights’ Psychedone 10 production is officially in the potty. And we have a whole minute to spare. Let’s get to class.”
“What a week. We got Angel arrested, shut down Chuckie and Rubric, ruined their drug production…”
“Only one more thing to do,” I said.
…
Masked and hoodied, I squinted through the air vent into the empty lab. School had ended an hour earlier. The halls buzzed with the news that the Class Project had been vandalized, and I knew Mason would stay late to investigate. After that phone call, I thought a bit of espionage might be in order. I wanted to watch his meltdown when he saw what we had done. Justice for making me want to be friends with a filthy wombat.
The lab door opened and a dumpy-looking figure in a lab coat came in…Dr. Miliron…and close on his heels, Captious.
No Mason.
“Ruined.” Dr. Miliron had no lightness in his voice, no goofiness. He was angry. Which led me to believe he was more than just a featherbrained science teacher.
“Can’t you decontaminate it?” Captious asked, arrogant as ever. “You are the resident chemist.”
Miliron shook his head. “DMSO is totally miscible. No way to remove it without altering the chemical structure. The Class Project is a loss, Ben.”
Totally miscible. Wow. That was so cool. I had no idea what the word meant, but it sounded awesome. One for the Dweeb League.
“Six months of planning down the tubes.” Miliron banged his fist on the lab bench.
“But, Martin,” Captious said, “we have plenty of evidence against Mason Draudimon without the Class Project.”
I nearly smacked my head against the steel ductwork when I heard Mason’s name.
“Draudimon’s your target, Ben. It’s his boss I want. Keep this between us. Before Munificent died, he assigned me to find the man who gives Mason his orders.”
“How interesting,” Captious said. “I didn’t know.”
“Munificent liked it that way. He kept us all in the dark. So much corruption in the police force. I don’t trust any of them. Present company excepted.” Miliron shook his head. “Dalrymple is going to have a fit when he hears about this.”
I was shocked. Dr. Miliron was an informant, too?
“Why?” Captious asked. “What does Dalrymple care about the Class Project?”
“Dalrymple didn’t start the war on drugs, Munificent did. We designed the Class Project as part of his Old Torrents sting operation. Munificent believed that the entire drug ring operates from inside the mental hospital. They have a very advanced laboratory. He also believed that Mason has a connection there. The Class Project was meant to lead us to that connection.”
“So the Class Project is a setup. It has nothing to do with helping the mentally ill, like you’ve been telling the faculty.”
Miliron was quiet for a moment. “I needed some way to bring Mason in on the project so I could follow his movements. We know his mother has issues, so we concocted a story about providing Old Torrents with experimental chemicals for their mentally ill program. It caught his attention.”